Bradley Arant law firm honored for death penalty representation

Lawyers with the Birmingham firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings will be honored at next month's American Bar Association meeting for the firm's volunteer work representing Death Row inmates in Alabama and other states.

The firm will receive the Exceptional Service Award from the ABA's Death Penalty Representation Project on Aug. 3, during the bar association's annual meeting in Chicago.

Bradley Arant lawyers have represented 22 Death Row inmates, including 19 from Alabama, since 1988. They have spent more than 1,000 hours on cases for condemned killers who have no right to appointed counsel at latter stages of their appeals.

The representation is part of a larger program within the 400-lawyer firm to provide free legal services to people in need and nonprofits, said Chris Christie, co-chair of the firm's pro bono committee.

"Pro bono work emphasizes the calling that lawyers have to help people solve their problems," he said. "This is how I serve."

Bradley Arant was a unanimous selection from among a record number of nominees this year for the Exceptional Service Award, said Robin M. Maher, director of the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project.

"The firm has provided desperately needed legal assistance for prisoners in an extremely active death penalty jurisdiction," Maher said in a statement. "Bradley Arant Boult Cummings' commitment to justice is truly extraordinary."

For 26 years, the Death Penalty Representation Project has recruited lawyers to represent condemned killers without counsel. Already handling a couple of capital cases by the early 1990s, Bradley Arant decided to get more formally involved in the late 1990s as efforts stepped up to improve post-conviction representation in Alabama, Christie said.

The firm agreed to provide both direct representation and act as local counsel for volunteer firms from outside Alabama.

"We made it easier to recruit those firms," Christie said. "We interview witnesses, handle hearings, saving that expense for the out-of-state firms."

Among its capital clients, three now are off Death Row, two died in custody and one was executed. More than 40 Bradley Arant lawyers are working on the remaining 16 capital cases.

"Many lawyers in our firm have worked to ensure our capital punishment system is fair and accurate," said Beau Grenier, Bradley Arant's chairman. "We are honored to see their hard work singled out."

Capital and other prisoner litigation are way outside the firm's normal practice areas. Bradley Arant, founded in Birmingham in 1871 and now with seven offices mostly in the Southeast, is known more for its civil-law work with governments and corporations.

Christie said the capital representation "is not universally popular" and some clients have questioned it.

"I tell them it shows our commitment to all clients," he said. "If we can represent someone on death row and be committed to them, you know we will be committed to your problems."

The firm is a member of the Pro Bono Institute, which calls for members to devote three percent of billable hours to free legal services to the needy. Bradley Arant has exceeded two percent and is working to increase that, Christie said.

Firm lawyers cook at the Firehouse Shelter, participate in Habitat for Humanity and assist at clinics for the homeless. They have helped prepare documents for missionaries about to go abroad, obtain trademark protection for a non-profit and fight for a mother being denied her shared-custody rights, Christie said.

The lawyers benefit because the pro bono work often provides courtroom experience, increasingly rare in major civil litigation, Christie said.

Christie said he tells law students to ask during job interviews if the firm does pro bono work.

"That will tell you they do something other than make as much money as they can and go home," Christie said. "If you have a firm culture that values things like serving, it will be a better place to work. And if you attract lawyers who are interested in those kinds of things, you will attract better lawyers."